Quote: Natalie Of Wicks @ October 13 2013, 12:49 PM BSTI almost can't watch any movie filmed before the late 70s, because the acting has moved on so far since.
Really? I suppose it is often a little melodramatic, but for me some of the most moving moments in cinema are from older movies.
Quote: George Kaplan @ October 13 2013, 12:06 AM BSTMaybe the average level of stage acting has dropped off then? I never go to plays any more since I left London 15 years ago. You'd get good stuff at the National, Almeida, Bush, Hampstead, Lyric in Hammersmith, Riverside, Old Red Lion etc.
Or maybe better TV acting - imported US drama for instance - has made us more critical of theatre acting?
Maybe the production you just saw was badly directed? So it could be that the quality of directors has declined? I'd imagine that pay for theatre directors is fairly low, and the good ones are quickly tempted by TV/Film/Ads.
It's an interesting topic, and an important one.
I went to a terrible play at the National Theatre the other week - some of the acting was superb, but there was definitely some pantomime acting going on. But what made the production particularly unbearable was the insistence on gimmicks like filming the actors inside a box on stage and projecting the badly lit result onto screens at awkward angles. I'm starting to think I'm incredibly picky, but then I'll see a brilliant play that gets it all right and I am just baffled by the crap.